ReadWrite - mozillahttp://readwrite.com/tag/mozilla
enCopyright 2015 Wearable World Inc.http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rssTue, 03 Mar 2015 14:38:21 -0800Firefox Kicks Google To The Curb To Make Room For Yahoo<!-- tml-version="2" --><div tml-image="ci01bfff4b30012a83" tml-image-caption=""><figure><img src="http://a1.files.readwrite.com/image/upload/c_fill,cs_srgb,dpr_1.0,q_80,w_620/MTI2MTAwMDExNjQwNTI3MzI2.jpg" /><figcaption></figcaption></figure></div><p>Mozilla and Yahoo <a href="https://blog.mozilla.org/blog/2014/11/19/promoting-choice-and-innovation-on-the-web/">announced Wednesday</a> that they've inked a deal that swaps Google for Yahoo as Firefox’s default search engine in the U.S. for the next five years. The move will apply to both the desktop and mobile browsers.</p><p>Yahoo’s search result pages are designed by that company, but the results themselves actually come from Microsoft Bing. Microsoft's Internet Explorer was once Firefox's mortal enemy. But now it's Google Chrome, not IE, that's eating into Firefox usage.&nbsp;</p><p>The search switch is just one of the changes in store for Firefox users. Next month, a new version of the browser will launch with a “clean, modern interface” for search and a new “Do Not Track” setting, so privacy-minded users don’t have to worry about advertisers watching their every move.&nbsp;</p><blockquote><p><strong>See also:&nbsp;<a href="http://readwrite.com/2014/11/10/firefox-developer-edition-mozilla">Mozilla's Firefox Browser For Developers Has Arrived</a></strong></p></blockquote><p><strong></strong></p><p>Firefox, which <a href="https://wiki.mozilla.org/Firefox/Decade#Firefox.27s_10_Year_Anniversary">just celebrated its 10-year anniversary</a> earlier this month, has used Google as its default search engine in most of the world for its entire existence. As such, its switch to Yahoo marks a major turning point—even if the organization is presenting the switch as a mundane matter.&nbsp;</p><p>"Our agreement came up for renewal this year,” Mozilla CEO Chris Beard wrote on the organization’s blog, "and we took this as an opportunity to review our competitive strategy and explore our options.” </p><p>Those options led him to Yahoo, whose CEO, Marissa Mayer, holds search traffic as a top priority.&nbsp;</p><p>"At Yahoo, we believe deeply in search,” <a href="http://www.theverge.com/2014/11/19/7250513/firefox-signs-yahoo-as-default-search-engine-">The Verge quotes her</a> as saying. “It’s an area of investment, opportunity and growth for us.” </p><h2>Browsing The Numbers</h2><p>For Yahoo, the arrangement may hold the most benefit on computers and laptops, as Firefox holds <a href="http://www.netmarketshare.com/browser-market-share.aspx?qprid=2&amp;qpcustomd=0&amp;qptimeframe=Q">12% of the desktop browser market</a>. On mobile, its share <a href="http://www.netmarketshare.com/browser-market-share.aspx?qprid=2&amp;qptimeframe=Q&amp;qpcustomd=1">only comes to 0.32%</a>. The disparity stems from one simple reason: availability. Apart from its own Firefox OS, Mozilla is only available&nbsp;<a href="https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/will-firefox-work-my-mobile-device">on Android</a>, where it competes with Google's built-in Chrome and other browsers installed by carriers and phone makers. Mozilla ended support for its <a href="http://www.windowsphone.com/en-us/store/app/firefox/6544df57-dd9c-4a61-bf89-9ba3832b849c">Windows Phone</a> version last year, and it never made a full Web browser for iPhones or iPads. </p><p>Even Firefox's desktop share has eroded significantly in recent years. In June 2013, for instance, Firefox <a href="http://readwrite.com/2013/07/10/the-new-firefox-is-awesomebut-that-wont-make-it-relevant-again">accounted for 19%</a> of the market. That’s a drop of 7 percentage points in a little over a year.&nbsp;</p><blockquote><p><strong>See also:&nbsp;<a href="http://readwrite.com/2013/06/07/7-reasons-to-switch-to-firefox-the-browser-with-a-conscience">7 Reasons To Switch To Firefox, The Browser With A Conscience</a></strong></p></blockquote><p>That still accounts for a prodigious amount of search traffic, though. According to Mozilla's Beard, Firefox users conduct Web searches more than 100 billion times each year. In 2012, Google <a href="http://www.internetlivestats.com/google-search-statistics/">conducted 1.2 trillion searches</a>, so it's hardly going to cut into Google's control of the search market, but for Yahoo, which has consistently lost search traffic for most of the past decade, it could add up to significant growth.&nbsp;</p><p>Yahoo needs all the help it can get. <a href="http://www.comscore.com/Insights/Market-Rankings/comScore-Releases-August-2014-US-Search-Engine-Rankings">According to comScore</a>, it trails both Google (with 67.3 percent market share) and Microsoft’s Bing (with 19.4 percent), coming in third with 10 percent.</p><p>Users willing to embrace change can check out the new Yahoo default search next month, when a new browser update rolls out. If you don't cotton to Yahoo, don’t worry: Firefox hasn’t removed Google as an option. The old default will remain—along with Bing, DuckDuckGo, eBay, Amazon, Twitter and Wikipedia—as alternatives.</p>Mozilla has dropped its longtime search partner.http://readwrite.com/2014/11/19/firefox-fires-google-yahoo-default-search
http://readwrite.com/2014/11/19/firefox-fires-google-yahoo-default-searchWebWed, 19 Nov 2014 17:03:45 -0800Adriana LeeMozilla's Firefox Browser For Developers Has Arrived<!-- tml-version="2" --><p>Mozilla <a href="https://hacks.mozilla.org/2014/11/mozilla-introduces-the-first-browser-built-for-developers-firefox-developer-edition/">released</a> the Firefox browser for developers it cryptically announced last Monday.</p><p>Timed exactly with the Firefox browser’s 10th anniversary, Firefox Developer Edition takes the developer tools that were an add-on in previous versions of the browser and blows them up to occupy the entire screen. </p><blockquote><p><strong>See also: <a href="http://readwrite.com/2014/11/03/mozilla-firefox-for-developers">Mozilla Is Working On A Firefox Browser Just For Developers</a></strong></p></blockquote><p>Firefox Developer Edition predominantly features two major tool suites, Valence (formerly known as Firefox Tools Adapter) and Web IDE. Valence allows developers to deploy and debug across multiple browser environments, while Web IDE allows programmers to develop and tweak apps directly within the browser window.</p><div tml-image="ci01bf3ea170019512" tml-image-caption=""><figure><img src="http://a5.files.readwrite.com/image/upload/c_fill,cs_srgb,dpr_1.0,q_80,w_620/MTI1ODg4MTc3MTQyNTM1NDQy.jpg" /><figcaption></figcaption></figure></div><p>“We’re giving developers the whole browser as a hard-hat area, allowing us to bring front and center the features most relevant to them,” wrote Dave Camp, director of developer tools at Mozilla. “Having a dedicated developer browser means we can tailor the browsing experience to what developers do every day.”</p><p><em>Image of Dave Camp by Mozilla; screenshot by ReadWrite</em></p>Just in time for Firefox's 10th birthdayhttp://readwrite.com/2014/11/10/firefox-developer-edition-mozilla
http://readwrite.com/2014/11/10/firefox-developer-edition-mozillaHackMon, 10 Nov 2014 13:30:04 -0800Lauren OrsiniMozilla Is Working On A Firefox Browser Just For Developers<!-- tml-version="2" --><p>Mozilla has a new Firefox browser in the works that isn’t just for anyone. According to the company’s <a href="https://blog.mozilla.org/blog/2014/11/03/the-first-browser-dedicated-to-developers-is-coming/">announcement</a> Monday, this upcoming project will be “the first browser dedicated to developers.” </p><p>The new browser will integrate some of Mozilla’s most popular developer tools, <a href="https://hacks.mozilla.org/2014/06/webide-lands-in-nightly/">WebIDE</a> and the <a href="https://hacks.mozilla.org/2014/09/firefox-tools-adapter/">Firefox Tools Adapter</a>. These tools are currently available for download to anyone on up-to-date versions of the Firefox browser, but the average user never touches them. This developer-specific browser will put them front and center.</p><p>“When building for the Web, developers tend to use a myriad of different tools which often don’t work well together,” the <a href="https://blog.mozilla.org/blog/2014/11/03/the-first-browser-dedicated-to-developers-is-coming/">announcement</a> on Mozilla’s blog reads. “This means you end up switching between different tools, platforms and browsers which can slow you down and make you less productive. So we decided to unleash our developer tools team on the entire browser to see how we could make your lives easier.”</p><p>Apart from a video that rehashes the words of the announcement, there isn’t a lot of information available yet on the new browser. However Mozilla promises that all will be revealed on its launch date, November 10.</p><p><em>Photo by <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/nayukim/4951164105/">Nayu Kim</a></em></p>Firefox cosplay optional.http://readwrite.com/2014/11/03/mozilla-firefox-for-developers
http://readwrite.com/2014/11/03/mozilla-firefox-for-developersHackMon, 03 Nov 2014 07:46:44 -0800Lauren OrsiniWith New Firefox Browser, Mozilla Hopes To Get Its Web Mojo Back<!-- tml-version="2" --><div tml-image="ci01b2794d80038266" tml-render-position="center" tml-render-size="large"><figure><img src="http://a1.files.readwrite.com/image/upload/c_fill,cs_srgb,dpr_1.0,q_80,w_620/MTIyMjkzNTEyNTg1NjQyNTk4.jpg" /></figure></div><p>Mozilla has <a href="https://blog.mozilla.org/blog/2014/04/29/mozilla-introduces-the-most-customizable-firefox-ever-with-an-elegant-new-design/">refreshed Firefox with a major revamp</a> that features cleaner design, more customization controls and better cross-browser syncing across devices, courtesy of the new Firefox Sync service.&nbsp;</p><p>Version 29 of the desktop browser puts the focus on the active browser tab, and stashes a new drop-down Firefox menu under a single button (at the right corner of the toolbar). Using Firefox Accounts, a login and identity service Mozilla <a href="https://blog.mozilla.org/blog/2014/02/07/introducing-mozilla-firefox-accounts/">launched in February</a>, Firefox Sync stores browsing history, passwords, bookmarks, open tabs and form data, and makes them available on desktops and Android mobile devices.&nbsp;</p><p></p><div tml-image="ci01b28126b0016d19"><figure><img src="http://a4.files.readwrite.com/image/upload/c_fill,cs_srgb,w_620/MTIyMzAyMTQxNzExODc2NzEw.png" /></figure></div><p>It’s been two years since Firefox’s last big redesign, though the group has been steadily working on <a href="http://readwrite.com/2013/07/10/the-new-firefox-is-awesomebut-that-wont-make-it-relevant-again">performance enhancements for quite a while</a>. Now Firefox's sleeker outside better matches what's inside.</p><p>Unfortunately, recent events at the organization behind Firefox have overshadowed its technical work.&nbsp;</p><p></p><div tml-image="ci01b2812730018266" tml-render-position="left" tml-render-size="small"><figure><img src="http://a1.files.readwrite.com/image/upload/c_fill,cs_srgb,w_620/MTIyMzAyMTQzODU5Mjg5MzY5.png" /></figure></div><p>Dating app OKCupid&nbsp;<a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/jeffbercovici/2014/03/31/ok-cupid-takes-a-stand-for-gay-rights-and-against-firefox/">called for a boycott of the Firefox browser</a>&nbsp;last month in protest of Mozilla's&nbsp;<a href="http://readwrite.com/2014/03/28/brendan-eich-mozilla-ceo-proposition-8">controversial choice of CEO</a>. (Brendan Eich, formerly the company's CTO, had previously donated money in support of a ban on gay marriage, a fact that alarmed some Mozilla employees and users. After Eich proved ill-suited to handle the backlash, he&nbsp;<a href="http://readwrite.com/2014/04/03/brendan-eich-mozilla-resigns-ceo">tendered his resignation after 11 days</a>.)&nbsp;</p><p>Given that, along with Firefox’s eroding marketshare—it’s in <a href="http://www.netmarketshare.com/browser-market-share.aspx?qprid=2&amp;qpcustomd=0">third place for desktop browsers</a>, behind Google Chrome and Microsoft Internet Explorer—it’s only logical for Mozilla to do whatever it can to entice users back into the fold. (Even if that means <a href="http://blogs.wsj.com/personal-technology/2014/04/29/mozilla-reboots-firefox-browser-with-custom-options-and-a-chrome-like-look/">borrowing some design elements from Chrome</a>.)</p><p>One thing that could work in its favor: timing. The revamp lands one day after government advisories <a href="https://www.yahoo.com/tech/new-security-flaw-affects-all-versions-of-internet-84085229159.html">urged people to seek alternatives to Internet Explorer</a>, pending a fix for a major security hole discovered in the Microsoft browser. A video promoting Firefox 29 highlights the kudos Mozilla gets for respecting users’ privacy:</p>Mozilla gives its 10-year-old browser a makeover, hoping people will forget recent controversies.http://readwrite.com/2014/04/29/mozilla-firefox-refresh-revamp-web-browser-desktop
http://readwrite.com/2014/04/29/mozilla-firefox-refresh-revamp-web-browser-desktopWebTue, 29 Apr 2014 14:47:00 -0700Adriana LeeMozilla Names Former Exec Chris Beard As Interim CEO<!-- tml-version="2" --><p></p><div tml-image="ci01b27fed10018266" tml-render-position="right" tml-render-size="medium"><figure><img src="http://a5.files.readwrite.com/image/upload/c_fill,cs_srgb,dpr_1.0,q_80,w_620/MTIyMzAwNzk1MjM5NTU4NDI1.jpg" /></figure></div><p>Mozilla has a new leader, at least in the short term. The custodian of the Firefox browser named former vice president of products and chief marketing officer <a href="https://blog.mozilla.org/press/2014/04/mozilla-moving-forward/">Chris Beard as its interim chief executive officer.</a></p><p>Beard, who most recently was an executive-in-residence at Greylock Partners venture capital firm, takes over the top spot at Mozilla after former chief technology officer Brendan Eich. Mozilla appointed Eich as the CEO at the end of March, although his stay was short lived after a<a href="http://readwrite.com/2014/04/03/brendan-eich-mozilla-resigns-ceo#awesm=~oBr37p7gTSRL5a"> firestorm of controversy around his support of the Proposition 8 </a>initiative in California that banned gay marriage in the state until overruled by the courts.</p><p>Beard started at Mozilla in 2004 as VP of products before becoming the chief innovation officer and later head marketing officer. Even after leaving Mozilla in June 2013, he has listed himself as an advisor to the company. Beard will also be joining Mitchell Baker, Reid Hoffman and Katharina Borchert on Mozilla's board of directors.</p><p>Baker summed up the introduction of Beard on the company's official blog:</p><blockquote><p>Mozilla is building these kinds of alternatives for the world. It’s why we’re here. It’s why we gather together to focus on our shared mission and goals. We intend to use recent events as a catalyst to develop and expand Mozilla’s leadership. Appointing Chris as our interim CEO is a first step in this process. Next steps include a long-term plan for the CEO role, adding board members who can help Mozilla succeed and continuing our efforts to actively support each Mozillian to reach his or her full potential as a leader.</p></blockquote><p>Beard follows Jay Sullivan as a top executive at Mozilla to be named interim CEO. Sullivan was the chief operating officer of Mozilla and also held the role of CEO after Gary Kovacs resigned from the role in the spring of 2013. Sullivan left Mozilla after Eich was named CEO.</p><p>Mozilla still has plenty of work to do to reestablish its leadership. It also needs two more board members after three left when Eich was made CEO. Mozilla also needs to find a new chief technology officer to replace Eich. Li Gong is set to take over the role of COO this year.</p>It's a move to stop the bleeding as Mozilla rebuilds its leadership following Brendan Eich's departure.http://readwrite.com/2014/04/14/mozilla-names-former-cmo-chris-beard-as-its-new-chief-executive
http://readwrite.com/2014/04/14/mozilla-names-former-cmo-chris-beard-as-its-new-chief-executiveMobileMon, 14 Apr 2014 12:07:00 -0700Dan RowinskiWith Mozilla In Disarray, The Open Web Needs A Hero<!-- tml-version="2" --><p>Mozilla is in trouble. There is no way around that basic fact.</p><p>The nonprofit maker of the Firefox Web browser needs a new CEO. <a href="http://readwrite.com/2014/04/03/brendan-eich-mozilla-resigns-ceo">Brendan Eich has resigned</a> amid a scandal over his financial support of Proposition 8, the 2008 initiative that outlawed gay marriage in California. While his donation was revealed in 2012 through a public-records search, he was only Mozilla’s CTO at the time. His ascension to CEO brought the issue freshly into light, sparking discord among his own employees as well as the public, and his awkward defense and refusal to offer an explanation of his views on the issue appeared to play a role in his ouster.</p><p>Eich held the job of CEO for less than two weeks. Yet he was the cofounder of Mozilla and a key technical leader since its earliest beginnings. As the inventor of the JavaScript programming language, he was also at the heart of the Open Web movement that Mozilla has championed for almost a decade.&nbsp;</p><p>Now Mozilla, in the worst possible outcome, needs both a new CEO and a new CTO. It hasn’t had a full-time CEO for more than a year; Gary Kovacs left in the spring of 2013. Eich replaced interim CEO Jay Sullivan, who was supposed to leave Mozilla after a transition period. (Mozilla chairwoman Mitchell Baker has said to expect more information next week.)</p><p><a href="http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2014/03/28/three-mozilla-board-members-resign-over-choice-of-new-ceo/">Mozilla is also down to three board members</a>, after three of its existing members resigned when <a href="http://readwrite.com/2014/03/24/why-brendan-eich-is-the-right-man-to-lead-mozilla">Eich was appointed CEO</a>. (Mozilla, the corporation, is wholly owned by the nonprofit Mozilla Foundation, which has its own separate board. Eich also stepped down from his seat on the Mozilla Foundation's board.) Two of those board members were reportedly expected to depart anyway, but whatever the reasons for their departures, they leave Mozilla short of leadership at a time when a board’s service is most critical.</p><p>So Mozilla—a vitally important player in Web standards and a bulwark against the commercial interests of large Internet companies—is in a state of disarray. It needs a white knight.</p><h2>The Godfather Of The Open Web</h2><p></p><div tml-image="ci01b2810b60026d19" tml-render-position="right" tml-render-size="medium"><figure><img src="http://a2.files.readwrite.com/image/upload/c_fill,cs_srgb,dpr_1.0,q_80,w_620/MTIyMzAyMDI1MjEwODIzMjcw.jpg" /></figure></div><p>The perfect person for the job, the rescue CEO who could stabilize Mozilla while upholding its philosophical ethos of openness, would be the man who welcomed Mozilla into the world: Netscape cofounder Marc Andreessen.</p><p>Under attack by Microsoft, which had annihilated the market for Web browsers by giving away Internet Explorer for free, Netscape decided to release the software behind its browser as open source. At a launch party in San Francisco just over 16 years ago, Andreessen <a href="http://www.metroactive.com/papers/metro/04.09.98/slices-9814.html">presided over the birth of the project that would become Mozilla</a>. Two million lines of code—the entire source—scrolled down the walls of the Sound Factory, and a movement was born.</p><p>But that was a long time ago, and Andreessen has moved on, setting the stages for the cloud industry with his startup Opsware, joining the boards of Facebook, Hewlett-Packard, and eBay, and becoming a very powerful technology investor through his venture-capital firm, Andreessen Horowitz.</p><p>The problem is that—aside from his very successful current career—Andreessen has <a href="http://www.sfgate.com/business/ontherecord/article/OPSWARE-INC-On-the-record-Marc-Andreessen-2525822.php">long disclaimed</a> any interest in serving as CEO of a company.</p><p>We might hope, though, that out of a sense of moral responsibility for his creation, Andreessen might join the board of Mozilla. His presence there would immediately stabilize the company, attract other board members to fill its depleted ranks, and help recruit a new CEO.</p><h2>Who Can Run Mozilla?</h2><p>A white-knight move by Andreessen would certainly help Mozilla in the interim. But it does not solve Mozilla's long-term problem of finding a leader who will find respect inside and outside the organization and steer the organization in the right direction.</p><p>According to an interview with <a href="http://venturebeat.com/2014/04/02/the-public-trial-of-mozilla-ceo-brendan-eich-part-ii-interview/">Eich by Jolie O’Dell at VentureBeat</a>, Mozilla had looked at 100 candidates for the CEO position and interviewed 25 of them. "That didn’t lead to anyone being hired,” he told VentureBeat.</p><p>According to Eich, Sullivan was in the running but Mozilla's board decided not to give him the job. Eich, as he put it, was "it"—against his initial wishes, he told O'Dell.</p><p>“I was asked to put my hat in, and at first I didn’t want to," he said. "But now I’m it."</p><p>The position of Mozilla CEO isn’t the sexiest job in tech. Mozilla—the foundation and corporation put together—pulled in $311 million in revenues in 2012. Individuals who would have the technical chops and expertise to be CEO of Mozilla could easily find high-paying jobs with the likes of Apple or Google. They could also start their own company and raise venture capital with the eye towards a billion-dollar sale or IPO.</p><p>As a nonprofit, Mozilla isn’t going to get acquired or go public. Finding a candidate with technical and business prowess, relatively low expectations for compensation compared to the paydays Silicon Valley generates, and who also shares wholeheartedly in the philosophical ethos of Mozilla—an open Web that benefits humanity—is going to be supremely challenging.</p><p>That’s not to say there aren’t some intriguing candidates to consider.</p><p><strong>Linus Torvalds</strong>—the founder of the open-source operating system Linux—might be a great choice. But he doesn’t really need the job and doesn’t have the experience running a large organization.</p><p><strong>Tom Preston-Werner</strong>, the cofounder and president of GitHub, would be an interesting choice if he were so inclined. One problem: He is currently on leave from his job after <a href="http://readwrite.com/2014/03/17/github-detox-community-julie-horvath-wanstrath-sexism-racism">facing allegations of sexism</a> following the resignation of a high-profile engineer, Julie Ann Horvath.</p><p><strong>Michael Mullany</strong>, the CEO of Sencha, is a Netscape veteran and Stanford alum. His company is one of the leaders in HTML5 development.</p><p>In that general realm, <strong>Sam Abadir</strong>, the CTO of AppMobi and current venture capitalist, has HTML5 chops and experience leading a company, albeit a small one. His mobile-Web experience could help push Firefox OS to phone makers and carriers.</p><p>Former Apple executive <strong>Scott Forstall</strong> and former Microsoft executive <strong>Steve Sinofsky</strong> would be interesting candidates. Mozilla would give either of them a way to dig at their old employers—and poke an eye at Google, a rival to them both.</p><p>Mozilla has an uneasy relationship with Google, which provides much of its revenues through a search partnership while it makes a competing Web browser and mobile operating system. But that makes Googlers an interesting pool to recruit from.<strong> Brian Rakowski</strong>, a VP at Google in charge of its Chrome Web browser, knows the space intimately—and would be well-poised to negotiate with the search lords of Mountain View. <strong><br tml-linebreak="true" /></strong></p><h2>Time Is Of The Essence</h2><p>Eich’s final service to Mozilla was resigning swiftly when it was clear he could not continue as CEO.&nbsp;</p><p>Mozilla needs a leader sooner, not later. It is making a mobile push with Firefox OS. It has a growing list of hardware makers, partners who will want to talk to the company's top leader. And Mozilla’s contract with Google will soon need to be renegotiated as well. </p><p>These are pressing matters. But even more important than these business dealings is the moral leadership Mozilla’s CEO must offer. Mozilla needs a CEO, yes, but the open Web needs a hero. It cannot <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8fpjuoKhfJo">hold out</a> for one very long.</p><p><em>Photo of Andreessen <a href="http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Marc_Andreessen.jpg">via Wikimedia Commons</a>; photo of Eich via <a href="http://mozilla.org/">Mozilla</a></em></p>The man who brought Mozilla into the world could be the one to save it.http://readwrite.com/2014/04/04/mozilla-brendan-eich-marc-andreessen-ceo-search
http://readwrite.com/2014/04/04/mozilla-brendan-eich-marc-andreessen-ceo-searchMobileFri, 04 Apr 2014 06:03:00 -0700Dan RowinskiMozilla CEO Brendan Eich Resigns After Marriage-Equality Furor; Mozilla Apologizes<!-- tml-version="2" --><p>Newly appointed <a href="https://blog.mozilla.org/blog/2014/04/03/brendan-eich-steps-down-as-mozilla-ceo/">Mozilla CEO Brendan Eich resigned his post today</a> following an outburst of public criticism—some from Mozilla employees—over his opposition to marriage equality, his financial support for California's Proposition 8 in 2008 and questions about his ability to lead a diverse organization of both employees and volunteer contributors given the controversy.</p><blockquote tml-render-position="right" tml-render-size="medium"><p><strong>See also: <a href="http://readwrite.com/2014/03/28/brendan-eich-mozilla-ceo-proposition-8">Brendan Eich: Just Apologize For Supporting Proposition 8</a></strong></p></blockquote><p>There was little question that Eich, a Mozilla co-founder who created Javascript and served as the organization's CTO for almost a decade, had the <a href="http://readwrite.com/2014/03/24/why-brendan-eich-is-the-right-man-to-lead-mozilla">technical chops to lead the company</a>. But some employees objected to Eich as CEO because of his never-recanted support for the ballot initiative that rolled back same-sex marriages in California until a federal judge ruled it unconstitutional in 2010, a finding later upheld by the Supreme Court.</p><blockquote tml-render-position="right" tml-render-size="medium"><p><strong>See also: <a href="http://readwrite.com/2014/03/24/why-brendan-eich-is-the-right-man-to-lead-mozilla">With Brendan Eich As CEO, Mozilla Keeps Its Focus On The Open Web</a></strong></p></blockquote><p>In a <a href="https://blog.mozilla.org/blog/2014/04/03/brendan-eich-steps-down-as-mozilla-ceo/">blog post</a>, Mozilla executive chairwoman Mitchell Baker said it was Eich's choice to resign, a decision he made "for Mozilla and our community."&nbsp;Baker apologized and reiterated Mozilla’s culture of equality and its support of freedom of speech:</p><blockquote></blockquote><p>Mozilla prides itself on being held to a different standard and, this past week, we didn’t live up to it. We know why people are hurt and angry, and they are right: it’s because we haven’t stayed true to ourselves.</p><p>We didn’t act like you’d expect Mozilla to act. We didn’t move fast enough to engage with people once the controversy started. We’re sorry. We must do better.</p><p>Eich's resignation throws Mozilla's leadership into turmoil. Baker wrote only that "[w]hat’s next for Mozilla’s leadership is still being discussed," added that the organization wants to be "open" about how it decides its future and said more information should be available next week.&nbsp;</p><p>It's also not clear whether Eich will remain as CTO of Mozilla, or even if he'll stay with the organization in any capacity. Recode reported that Eich has <a href="http://recode.net/2014/04/03/mozilla-co-founder-brendan-eich-resigns-as-ceo-and-also-from-foundation-board/">left the board of the nonprofit Mozilla Foundation</a>, which owns the for-profit company Mozilla.&nbsp;A Mozilla spokeswoman did not respond to queries by press time.</p><p><em><strong>Update, 3:50pm PT:&nbsp;</strong>Brendan Eich confirmed his departure from Mozilla in a statement distributed by Mozilla PR:</em></p><blockquote><p>I have decided to resign as CEO effective today, and leave Mozilla. Our mission is bigger than any one of us, and under the present circumstances, I cannot be an effective leader. I will be taking time before I decide what to do next.</p></blockquote>A mere week-and-a-half after his appointment, Eich is out and Mozilla's leadership is in turmoil.http://readwrite.com/2014/04/03/brendan-eich-mozilla-resigns-ceo
http://readwrite.com/2014/04/03/brendan-eich-mozilla-resigns-ceoWebThu, 03 Apr 2014 13:27:00 -0700Jodi MardesichBrendan Eich: Just Apologize For Supporting Proposition 8<!-- tml-version="2" --><p>[<em><strong>Update, April 3:</strong><a href="http://readwrite.com/2014/04/03/brendan-eich-mozilla-resigns-ceo">Brendan Eich has resigned as Mozilla CEO</a>.]</em></p><p>Dear Brendan:</p><p>I've known you for a long time, though it’s been a while since we’ve talked. I know that you’re a really smart guy. So your public support for Proposition 8, an attempt to ban same-sex marriage in California, confounded me. Your boss, Mitchell Baker, Mozilla’s executive chairwoman, expressed “<a href="https://blog.lizardwrangler.com/2014/03/26/building-a-global-diverse-inclusive-mozilla-project-addressing-controversy/">surprise</a>" when she learned about those views.</p><p>And now that you’re CEO of Mozilla—a position you’re eminently well suited for, and an <a href="http://readwrite.com/2014/03/24/why-brendan-eich-is-the-right-man-to-lead-mozilla">appointment that we at ReadWrite applauded</a>—many other people are puzzled, too.</p><p>Some members of your own staff are calling for you to <a href="http://arstechnica.com/business/2014/03/mozilla-employees-to-brendan-eich-step-down/">step down as CEO</a>. I actually don't think that's the right outcome here.</p><p>Let's remember what's at stake: Mozilla, the maker of the Firefox browser and other new technologies, is a bulwark against profit-seeking companies who seek to warp the standards of the Web to their own ends. Your ability to lead Mozilla without distraction or distrust is of vital interest—not just to your organization, but to every single human being who uses the Web.</p><h2>A Marriage Of The Minds</h2><p>I’ll admit that the legalization of same-sex marriage is a personal issue for me, one that I've dealt with for a decade. My husband and I have attempted to get married three times, with the last one finally sticking. Thanks to the Supreme Court’s ruling last year overturning Proposition 8 and key parts of the Defense of Marriage Act, both my state and my country now recognize my marriage.</p><p>One consequence of that: My husband and I will be able to file our federal taxes as a married couple for the first time this year. To understand the crazy illogic of this country’s shameful history of prohibitions on same-sex marriage, I really think you need to sit down and do your taxes four times, four different ways—as my husband and I have done in an attempt to comply with the various mutually contradictory state and federal laws around our relationship.</p><p>I take you at your word that your support of Proposition 8 (and political candidates who supported the gay-marriage ban) <a href="https://brendaneich.com/2012/04/community-and-diversity/">was not an act of personal animosity</a>. But I do not understand how you can defend that decision today. That ban, after all, was found unconstitutional in California and the United States.</p><p>More importantly, key members of your most vital constituencies, Mozilla employees and developers, have expressed concerns about the personal views that led to your support of Proposition 8 in the first place. Key partners throughout the technology industry like <a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/09/our-position-on-californias-no-on-8.html">Google</a>&nbsp;and <a href="http://gizmodo.com/5604749/the-tech-companies-that-helped-fight-proposition-8/">others</a> opposed Proposition 8; it is hard to see how you can engage with these people while declaring your stance on the issue a personal, private matter. The distrust engendered by your silence threatens your ability to effectively govern Mozilla, and that's a shame.</p><p>You've already <a href="https://brendaneich.com/2014/03/inclusiveness-at-mozilla/">said</a> that you won’t bring any personal exclusionary beliefs to the workplace. But your actions in 2008 were not personal or private: They were public acts of speech, for which your constituents are rightly holding you accountable now. You did not merely express a personal view on same-sex marriage; you attempted to persuade others to support your point of view.</p><p>While no one can argue that your donation tipped the scales by itself, financial support for Proposition 8 played a role in its passage. And the temporary enactment of this unconstitutional attempt to deprive people of their civil rights led to real damage—damage that was eventually corrected by the courts, as injustices typically are.</p><h2>An Apology That’s Due</h2><p>So here’s what you need to do—not for your own sake, but for Mozilla, its employees, its developers, its partners, and Internet users everywhere.</p><p><strong>Stop saying that this was merely a private matter</strong> that won't affect your work as Mozilla's CEO. That’s disingenuous and beneath a leader of your stature.</p><p>Say that whatever chain of logic led you to conclude that your personal views required you to support Proposition 8 was <strong>flawed, erroneous, incorrect</strong>. You may well maintain those same views—that's your prerogative—but you don't have to draw the same conclusions from them today as you did six years ago.</p><p>Go further. <strong>Say that you support the rights of people to enter into same-sex marriages everywhere</strong>. Say that you will not only support employees in the United States who are in same-sex marriages, but that you will also fight for the civil rights of Mozilla employees who work in societies with less progressive views.</p><p>Finally, <strong>make a donation</strong> equal in amount to the money you gave to Proposition 8 and candidates who supported it to the Human Rights Campaign or another organization that fights for the civil rights of LGBT people.</p><p>Brendan, you have done incredible good for the world through your work on JavaScript, a language that is increasingly becoming the entryway for people to launch their coding careers. Your work at Mozilla is a linchpin for the effort to keep large, dominant Internet companies from privatizing the Web.</p><p>I honor those achievements and the new position they have earned for you. I want you to honor them, too, by making this right.</p><p>Don't let a mistake you made six years ago become a distraction. Just admit you were wrong. Say you're sorry. And make amends.</p><p><em>Photo by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/fredchat/5625453369/">Frédéric Chateaux</a></em></p>For the sake of the open Web, Mozilla's new CEO needs to say more about his past advocacy for a same-sex-marriage ban.http://readwrite.com/2014/03/28/brendan-eich-mozilla-ceo-proposition-8
http://readwrite.com/2014/03/28/brendan-eich-mozilla-ceo-proposition-8WebFri, 28 Mar 2014 12:52:00 -0700Owen ThomasWith Brendan Eich As CEO, Mozilla Keeps Its Focus On The Open Web<!-- tml-version="2" --><p>Mozilla has named <a href="https://blog.mozilla.org/press/2014/03/mozilla-leadership-changes/">Brendan Eich its new chief executive officer</a>. Eich is the inventor of JavaScript and has been Mozilla’s chief technology officer since 2005. He was one of the co-founders of the Mozilla Foundation and instrumental in the launch of the Firefox browser in 2004.</p><p>Eich takes over for acting CEO and chief operating officer Jay Sullivan as the permanent replacement for Gary Kovacs, who resigned the CEO position in the spring of 2013. Sullivan will leave Mozilla after a transition period and be replaced by Li Gong.</p><h2>Eich The Right Man For The Job</h2><p></p><div tml-image="ci01b280fca0016d19" tml-render-position="right" tml-render-size="medium"><figure><img src="http://a5.files.readwrite.com/image/upload/c_fill,cs_srgb,dpr_1.0,q_80,w_620/MTIyMzAxOTYxNTkxNjE0NzQ1.jpg" /></figure></div><p>Eich has long been the heart of everything that Mozilla touches. He was the chief architect at Mozilla.org in 1998 and on the Mozilla Foundation board of directors. He became CTO of the Mozilla Corporation 2005. Mozilla and Firefox are what they are today thanks largely to Eich. He is a staunch proponent of the open Web—as is everyone at Mozilla—and has been the leading force in getting Firefox OS off the ground for smartphones.</p><p>What makes Eich the perfect leader at Mozilla is that he is not a businessman. Yes, as CEO he'll be responsible for Mozilla’s business partnerships, and that'll include renewing a contract that keeps Google as the default search engine on Firefox—a deal, by the way, that serves as Mozilla's primary source of revenue. But Mozilla has never been a corporation all that interested in money. It is, by definition, a non-profit company that focuses its energy on standards and development of the open Web.</p><p>By promoting Eich to CEO, Mozilla will remain a tech-centered organization focused on the Web. Mozilla’s strength is pushing the boundaries of what is possible through the browser using HTML5 and other open development practices and principles. The HTML5 <a href="http://readwrite.com/2012/06/06/mozilla-close-to-cracking-html5-mobile-hardware-integration-for-android#awesm=~ozsn95HR3Hodxh">Web APIs that Mozilla created for Firefox OS</a> are a key example of that.</p><p>Eich ensures continuity of Mozilla’s mission which is important in a technology world that increasingly sees companies that want to lock consumers and developers into walled garden loops of devices and services like iOS, Android and Windows.&nbsp;</p>Eich is a technologist, not a businessman, and that's exactly what Mozilla needs.http://readwrite.com/2014/03/24/why-brendan-eich-is-the-right-man-to-lead-mozilla
http://readwrite.com/2014/03/24/why-brendan-eich-is-the-right-man-to-lead-mozillaWebMon, 24 Mar 2014 13:21:00 -0700Dan RowinskiWhy 2014 Is The Year Of The Cheap Smartphone<!-- tml-version="2" --><p>2014 is the year that the rest of the world gets connected. Cheap computers and pervasive networks are reshaping the world, and the smartphone—specifically, the inexpensive smartphone—is emerging as the key to the Internet.</p><p>In the U.S. and other “mature” markets, smartphones are as ubiquitous as televisions and personal computers, and smartphone makers know that consumers are consistently willing to spend top dollar for the latest and greatest gadgets in the U.S., South Korea, Japan and Europe.&nbsp;But growth in these mature markets has stalled, and it's more difficult for second- and third-tier manufacturers to compete with behemoths like Apple and Samsung.</p><p><a href="https://www.comscore.com/Insights/Press_Releases/2014/2/comScore_Reports_December_2013_US_Smartphone_Subscriber_Market_Share">According to research firm comScore</a>, fully 65% of all mobile users in the U.S. already own smartphones. At&nbsp;156 million consumers,&nbsp;that's roughly half the U.S. population.</p><p>So to keep their engines revving, smartphone manufacturers are now engaged in a race to the bottom with inexpensive phones designed to appeal to people in the developing world. Billions of consumer pockets are at stake. China is the biggest example, but smartphone makers are also pouring into India, Asia-Pacific countries like Indonesia, the Middle East and Eastern Europe.&nbsp;</p><p>In previous years, the focus of the smartphone industry was asking “what” and “when” for the newest gadgets to hit the market. What features will the new Galaxy S5 debut? When is the iPhone 6 going to launch? This year, the focus has shifted. The question now is, “who is going to ship the most in India or China?”</p><p>There's no shortage of competitors.</p><h2>Apple’s Enigma</h2><p></p><div tml-image="ci01b280c360048266" tml-render-position="right" tml-render-size="medium"><figure><img src="http://a5.files.readwrite.com/image/upload/c_fill,cs_srgb,dpr_1.0,q_80,w_620/MTIyMzAxNzE1MTY3ODY2MTM3.jpg" /></figure></div><p>Apple is an enigma where this trend is concerned. The iPhone maker broke with tradition last year and released two iPhone models—one of which, the less expensive and more colorful 5C, was part of Apple's effort to appeal to more price-sensitive consumer across the world.</p><p>The problem for Apple was that the 5C wasn't that much cheaper than its fuller-fledged cousin, the 5S. The base-version price difference between the two models was just $100—$550 for the 5C, $650 for the 5S.</p><p>Apple admitted in its last quarterly earnings call that it had miscalculated on the 5C, as more consumers than expected opted for the more technologically advanced 5S, which was only nominally more expensive. Even so, $550 for the iPhone 5C was still too high for Apple to reliably compete in the high-growth markets.</p><p>True, Apple has done moderately well in China—it sold about a million smartphones to China Mobile last quarter—and expects big growth this year with the country’s biggest carriers. Still, its phones largely appeal to China's newly wealthy elites, and it's far from a given that Apple will move down the volume chain to middle and lower income class Chinese consumers.</p><p>Apple did release a less expensive<a href="http://readwrite.com/2014/03/18/iphone-5c-price-8gb#awesm=~oz4QHnAd3CTTag">&nbsp;8GB version of the iPhone 5C</a> to European markets earlier this week; on its U.K. page, the 8GB model sells for £429 ($708), compared to £469 ($774) for the 16GB version. That's probably still not low enough to make the 5C competitive for budget-minded consumers.</p><p>You can never count Apple out, but the fact that its newest devices are clearly not targeted at the average emerging-market user means that it's not going to have as many opportunities to compete for the mass market in developing nations as its competitors are counting on.</p><h2>Microsoft And Nokia Move Down Market</h2><p></p><div tml-image="ci01b27909e0026d19" tml-render-position="left" tml-render-size="medium"><figure><img src="http://a4.files.readwrite.com/image/upload/c_fill,cs_srgb,dpr_1.0,q_80,w_620/MTIyMjkzMjIyNDA2OTc0NzQ1.jpg" /></figure></div><p>One of those competitors is Microsoft and its soon-to-be manufacturing arm Nokia. In February at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Microsoft announced a forthcoming update to Windows Phone intended to let the mobile OS&nbsp;<a href="http://readwrite.com/2014/02/23/windows-8-update-windows-phone-8-update-spring-2014#awesm=~oz4RYzfFMT7ZCP">work on cheaper hardware</a>&nbsp;in order to help smaller regional hardware manufacturers build budget devices. Earlier this month, we also heard rumors that Microsoft might also do away with licensing fees for Windows Phone—Microsoft normally charges device makers to install Windows—for&nbsp;<a href="http://www.theverge.com/2014/3/13/5503718/windows-phone-free-indian-phone-makers-rumor">manufacturers in places such as India</a>.</p><p>“We did some things that have enabled us to really hit some key markets. New messaging software, new language capabilities. All kinds of stuff,” Microsoft's Greg Sullivan, a senior product manager for Windows Phone at Microsoft, said in an interview with ReadWrite.</p><blockquote tml-render-position="right" tml-render-size="medium"><p><strong>See also:&nbsp;<a href="http://readwrite.com/2013/11/13/how-nokia-needs-to-be-the-champion-of-windows-phone#awesm=~oz4RMwlkeFncVv">Nokia Has One Job: Drive The Growth Of Windows Phone</a></strong></p></blockquote><p>Nokia also has the <a href="http://readwrite.com/2014/02/24/nokia-x-android-phone#awesm=~oz4SDsAk3KhJYQ">ambiguous Nokia X</a>, the Android smartphone that looks like a Windows Phone but which taps into Microsoft services—search, email and so forth—instead of Google’s. <a href="http://readwrite.com/2014/02/24/nokia-x-android-apps-developers-consumers#awesm=~oz4SEPZGGZsePo">The basic strategy for the Nokia X seems sound</a> (access to third-party app stores, porting and side loading of apps) and the price is right at less than €100.</p><p>Now we just have to see if people actually buy the thing—and then whether it serves as the gateway drug to Windows Phone that Microsoft hopes.&nbsp;“From the broader perspective of that in the mobile phones business, it gets people using our services and then we think that the natural progression is that people will want a Windows Phone,” Sullivan said.</p><h2>Android Owns The Emerging Market</h2><p></p><div tml-image="ci01b27a2a00018266" tml-render-position="right" tml-render-size="medium"><figure><img src="http://a4.files.readwrite.com/image/upload/c_fill,cs_srgb,dpr_1.0,q_80,w_620/MTIyMjk0NDU5NjI1OTMxMzY2.jpg" /></figure></div><p>Any discussion of emerging markets for smartphones begins—and sometimes ends—with Android, which accounts for more than 80% of the global smartphone market. That doesn't mean Google is coasting, though.</p><p>When Google released its latest version of Android, one of the most significant changes was an overhaul specifically intended to ensure that Android's newest features and functions would work on lower-end hardware. In Android 4.4 KitKat, Google made the profile of the operating system fit into smartphones work on devices that run on as little as 512MB of RAM.</p><p>Google's motivation was partly just to persuade manufacturers to stop using old versions of Android (namely version 2.3 Gingerbread) in cheap new smartphone models. The manufacturing cycle has not yet caught up with KitKat—it was only running on 2.5% of Android devices that touch Google servers as of March 3—so the jury is still out on whether Google's strategy will pay off.&nbsp;</p><p>“Particularly at the low end but what we were seeing is that there were new versions of phones coming out with old versions of Android,” said Google’s head Android engineer <a href="http://readwrite.com/2013/11/25/how-google-shrunk-android-for-version-44-kitkat#awesm=~oz4UcV8qHXhgsL">Dave Burke in an interview with ReadWrite last year.</a>&nbsp;“We put a lot of effort into reducing the raw footprint of Android so that KitKat could run on those entry-level smartphones,” Burke said.</p><p>Any and all comers to high-growth markets are trying to take market share from Android. This is easier said than done as Google has strong partnerships not only with the top of the heap smartphone makers like LG, Samsung, HTC and Sony, but also the mid-to-low level and white market (unbranded manufacturers) device builders like Huawei and ZTE that are shipping lots of phones to markets like China and India.</p><h2>And Then ... The Also-Rans</h2><p>Outside of the power three in Apple, Google and Microsoft, a number of smaller (and sometimes scrappier) companies and organizations are also targeting the fast-growing developing world. Mozilla is foremost among these competitors, and so far is one of the only ones to actually ship a device in any meaningful volume.</p><p></p><div tml-image="ci01b280fa80016d19" tml-render-position="left" tml-render-size="medium"><figure><img src="http://a5.files.readwrite.com/image/upload/c_fill,cs_srgb,dpr_1.0,q_80,w_620/MTIyMzAxOTUyMTk2NDQ0Nzc0.jpg" /></figure></div><p>Mozilla created Firefox OS with the express purpose of targeting emerging markets. Mozilla’s manufacturing partners are the likes of Alcatel and KDDI, companies that don't sell phones in the U.S. yet still have large global footprints.</p><p>“I spent a lot of time traveling in South America when we launched. And, just to pick a country like Venezuela, we had community members come to Venezuela and train the local retail sales staff and design highly localized, relevant marketing campaigns,"&nbsp;Mozilla chief operating officer Jay Sullivan said in an interview with&nbsp;<a href="http://readwrite.com/2014/02/23/mozilla-os-smartphones-mobile-world-congress#awesm=~oz4l6KMSZL1xA0">ReadWrite at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.</a>&nbsp;"The idea about Mozilla is scaling with people who really love what we do. So that’s how we kind of punch above our weight.”</p><p>Sullivan said analysts estimate that between 500,00 and 750,000 Firefox OS smartphones shipped in the first six months following the operating system’s debut. Mozilla announced that it was expanding to 12 new markets this year (up to a total of 27) with seven new devices during Mobile World Congress. The killer may be a $25 smartphone called SC6821 that Mozilla is making with chip manufacturer Spreadtrum this year.</p><p>After Mozilla, the competitive picture is considerably murkier. The mobile OS Tizen—the Linux-based bastard offspring of MeeGo—has been in development for years, but hasn't officially shipped on any smartphones; in fact, at this point the only products using Tizen are one Samsung-made camera and three smartwatches—the new Gear family of wearables from Samsung. So far, there's no firm indication that any manufacturer plans to ship a Tizen-based smartphone, much less any sense of where such a beast might be available, or at what price.</p><h2>Raising The Floor</h2><p>In 2013, the top of the line computer processing unit to be placed in smartphones what the Qualcomm Snapdragon 600. It made its way into the Samsung Galaxy S4 and other flagship smartphones. This year, the Snapdragon 600 is a middle-tier component for middle-tier smartphones. This is the nature of consumer electronics; what was hot yesterday is in today’s budget bin.</p><p>What has made this explosion of lower tier devices possible the is ubiquity and prevalence of highly functional but ultimately cheaper hardware. Companies like Google, Samsung, HTC, Apple and Microsoft built their smartphones and operating systems in order to run the best and most demanding new applications. Hardware makers like Qualcomm had to keep up with the demand for new functionality. Now all those lessons learned are shaping the next generation of budget smartphones.</p><p>“We scale our CPUs, we scale our GPUs to fit in the low-end parts,” said Raj Talluri, senior vice president of product management for Qualcomm, in an interview with ReadWrite at Mobile World Congress. “Now, when you do that one of the interesting things is that it lets the application, it lets the user experience that everybody has gone to that everybody expects from the high end to work at the low end.”</p><p>How this works in mobile realm is that component makers and smartphone manufacturers start off building high-end features like a great camera, fast, high-resolution displays, long battery life and great data connections into their best smartphones. Over time, you will see those features migrate to midrange and even budget phones.&nbsp;</p><p>“So for a while there the trend was really that more is better. You start with low resolution displays, qHD displays, full HD displays, 2K displays and now we are talking about 4K displays. Then the cameras went from 2-megapixels cameras, 4-megapixel cameras and so on,” Talluri said. “That is what we are really finding are that companies like Microsoft, companies like Nokia are saying we can now deploy at the low end and make good products.”</p>This is the year where cheap computers and pervasive networks manifest themselves in cheap smartphones sold across the world.http://readwrite.com/2014/03/24/cheap-smartphone-2014
http://readwrite.com/2014/03/24/cheap-smartphone-2014MobileMon, 24 Mar 2014 05:59:00 -0700Dan Rowinski